The Trial by Franz Kafka (best chinese ebook reader TXT) š
- Author: Franz Kafka
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āWhat makes you think he did his duty?ā asked K., āHe didnāt. It might have been his duty to keep everyone else away, but this man is who the door was intended for and he ought to have let him in.ā āYouāre not paying enough attention to what was written and youāre changing the story,ā said the priest. āAccording to the story, there are two important things that the doorkeeper explains about access to the law, one at the beginning, one at the end. At one place he says he canāt allow him in now, and at the other he says this entrance was intended for him alone. If one of the statements contradicted the other you would be right and the doorkeeper would have cheated the man from the country. But there is no contradiction. On the contrary, the first statement even hints at the second. You could almost say the doorkeeper went beyond his duty in that he offered the man some prospect of being admitted in the future. Throughout the story, his duty seems to have been merely to turn the man away, and there are many commentators who are surprised that the doorkeeper offered this hint at all, as he seems to love exactitude and keeps strict guard over his position. He stays at his post for many years and doesnāt close the gate until the very end, heās very conscious of the importance of his service, as he says, āIām powerful,ā he has respect for his superiors, as he says, āIām only the lowliest of the doormenā, heās not talkative, as through all these years the only questions he asks are ādisinterestedā, heās not corruptible, as when heās offered a gift he says, āIāll only accept this so that you donāt think thereās anything youāve failed to do,ā as far as fulfilling his duty goes he can be neither ruffled nor begged, as it says about the man that, āhe tires the doorkeeper with his requestsā, even his external appearance suggests a pedantic character, the big hooked nose and the long, thin, black tartar-beard. How could any doorkeeper be more faithful to his duty? But in the doorkeeperās character there are also other features which might be very useful for those who seek entry to the law, and when he hinted at some possibility in the future it always seemed to make it clear that he might even go beyond his duty. Thereās no denying heās a little simple minded, and that makes him a little conceited. Even if all he said about his power and the power of the other doorkeepers and how not even he could bear the sight of them - I say even if all these assertions are right, the way he makes them shows that heās too simple and arrogant to understand properly. The commentators say about this that, ācorrect understanding of a matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter are not mutually exclusiveā. Whether theyāre right or not, you have to concede that his simplicity and arrogance, however little they show, do weaken his function of guarding the entrance, they are defects in the doorkeeperās character. You also have to consider that the doorkeeper seems to be friendly by nature, he isnāt always just an official. He makes a joke right at the beginning, in that he invites the man to enter at the same time as maintaining the ban on his entering, and then he doesnāt send him away but gives him, as it says in the text, a stool to sit on and lets him stay by the side of the door. The patience with which he puts up with the manās requests through all these years, the little questioning sessions, accepting the gifts, his politeness when he puts up with the man cursing his fate even though it was the doorkeeper who caused that fate - all these things seem to want to arouse our sympathy.
Not every doorkeeper would have behaved in the same way. And finally, he lets the man beckon him and he bends deep down to him so that he can put his last question. Thereās no more than some slight impatience -
the doorkeeper knows everythingās come to its end - shown in the words, āYouāre insatiableā. There are many commentators who go even further in explaining it in this way and think the words, āyouāre insatiableā are an expression of friendly admiration, albeit with some condescension.
However you look at it the figure of the doorkeeper comes out differently from how you might think.ā āYou know the story better than I do and youāve known it for longer,ā said K. They were silent for a while. And then K. said, āSo you think the man was not cheated, do you?ā āDonāt get me wrong,ā said the priest, āIām just pointing out the different opinions about it. You shouldnāt pay too much attention to peopleās opinions. The text cannot be altered, and the various opinions are often no more than an expression of despair over it. Thereās even one opinion which says itās the doorkeeper whoās been cheated.ā āThat does seem to take things too far,ā said K. āHow can they argue the doorkeeper has been cheated?ā āTheir argument,ā answered the priest, āis based on the simplicity of the doorkeeper. They say the doorkeeper doesnāt know the inside of the law, only the way into it where he just walks up and down. They see his ideas of whatās inside the law as rather childish, and suppose heās afraid himself of what he wants to make the man frightened of. Yes, heās more afraid of it than the man, as the man wants nothing but to go inside the law, even after heās heard about the terrible doormen there, in contrast to the doorkeeper who doesnāt want to go in, or at least we donāt hear anything about it. On the other hand, there are those who say he must have already been inside the law as he has been taken on into its service and that could only have been done inside. That can be countered by supposing he could have been given the job of doorkeeper by somebody calling out from inside, and that he canāt have gone very far inside as he couldnāt bear the sight of the third doorkeeper. Nor, through all those years, does the story say the doorkeeper told the man anything about the inside, other than his comment about the other doorkeepers. He could have been forbidden to do so, but he hasnāt said anything about that either. All this seems to show he doesnāt know anything about what the inside looks like or what it means, and that thatās why heās being deceived. But heās also being deceived by the man from the country as heās this manās subordinate and doesnāt know it. Thereās a lot to indicate that he treats the man as his subordinate, I expect you remember, but those who hold this view would say itās very clear that he really is his subordinate. Above all, the free man is superior to the man who has to serve another. Now, the man really is free, he can go wherever he wants, the only thing forbidden to him is entry into the law and, whatās more, thereās only one man forbidding him to do so - the doorkeeper. If he takes the stool and sits down beside the door and stays there all his life he does this of his own free will, thereās nothing in the story to say he was forced to do it. On the other hand, the doorkeeper is kept to his post by his employment, heās not allowed to go away from it and it seems heās not allowed to go inside either, not even if he wanted to.
Also, although heās in the service of the law heās only there for this one entrance, therefore heās there only in the service of this one man who the doorās intended for. This is another way in which heās his subordinate. We can take it that heās been performing this somewhat empty service for many years, through the whole of a manās life, as it says that a man will come, that means someone old enough to be a man.
That means the doorkeeper will have to wait a long time before his function is fulfilled, he will have to wait for as long as the man liked, who came to the door of his own free will. Even the end of the doorkeeperās service is determined by when the manās life ends, so the doorkeeper remains his subordinate right to the end. And itās pointed out repeatedly that the doorkeeper seems to know nothing of any of this, although this is not seen as anything remarkable, as those who hold this view see the doorkeeper as deluded in a way thatās far worse, a way thatās to do with his service. At the end, speaking about the entrance he says, āNow Iāll go and close itā, although at the beginning of the story it says the door to the law is open as it always is, but if itās always open - always - that means itās open independently of the lifespan of the man itās intended for, and not even the doorkeeper will be able to close it. There are various opinions about this, some say the doorkeeper was only answering a question or showing his devotion to duty or, just when the man was in his last moments, the doorkeeper wanted to cause him regret and sorrow. There are many who agree that he wouldnāt be able to close the door. They even believe, at the end at least, the doorkeeper is aware, deep down, that heās the manās subordinate, as the man sees the light that shines out of the entry to the law whereas the doorkeeper would probably have his back to it and says nothing at all to show thereās been any change.ā āThat is well substantiated,ā said K., who had been repeating some parts of the priestās explanation to himself in a whisper. āIt is well substantiated, and now I too think the doorkeeper must have been deceived. Although that does not mean Iāve abandoned what I thought earlier as the two versions are, to some extent, not incompatible. Itās not clear whether the doorkeeper sees clearly or is deceived. I said the man had been cheated. If the doorkeeper understands clearly, then there could be some doubt about it, but if the doorkeeper has been deceived then the man is bound to believe the same thing. That would mean the doorkeeper is not a cheat but so simple-minded that he ought to be dismissed from his job immediately; if the doorkeeper is mistaken it will do him no harm but the man will be harmed immensely.ā āThere youāve found another opinion,ā said the priest, āas there are many who say the story doesnāt give anyone the right to judge the doorkeeper.
However he might seem to us he is still in the service of the law, so he belongs to the law, so heās beyond what man has a right to judge. In this case we canāt believe the doorkeeper is the manās subordinate.
Even if he has to stay at the entrance into the law his service makes him incomparably more than if he lived freely in the world. The man has come to the law for the first time and the doorkeeper is already there.
Heās been given his position by the law, to doubt his worth would be to doubt the law.ā āI canāt say Iām in complete agreement with this view,ā
said K.
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